6-24-11: Responding to Sexual Assault in Baltimore

It’s been one year since the Baltimore Sun published an investigation finding that the city has an extraordinarily high number of “unfounded” rapes. That means police find a report to be false or baseless, and decide that no crime had actually occurred. We look into policy changes the city has made since then — and we ask the city’s new Sexual Assault Response Team coordinator and a victim’s advocate about whether they’re seeing any changes.

6-14-11: A Community’s Role in Stopping Sexual Assault

Last week, a woman was raped while moving into her apartment in Baltimore’s Mount Vernon neighborhood. The police received a description of the attacker from the victim. They then contacted the neighborhood’s community association, which sent out a description of him via an email listserve. A suspect was arrested later that evening. In light of this, we take a look at the role the community can play in responding to sexual assault.